U.S. Bank expands in-store network

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 | 11:07 a.m.

U.S. Bank on Monday opened five grocery store branches inside Vons supermarkets across the Las Vegas Valley.

Another two Vons branches are scheduled to open today, said Henry Hall, a district manager for U.S. Bank.

Hall said the expansion is part of an effort to grow Las Vegas-area marketshare and a regional partnership the bank has established with Safeway Inc., parent company of Vons. U.S. Bank plans to open 163 in-store branches in Vons and Safeway locations in California, Arizona and Nevada during the next year.

Grocery store branches, he said, remain popular with banks because of heavy foot traffic and lower construction costs.

"The foot traffic is great," Hall said, pointing to statistics that indicate most grocery stores conduct 9,000 to 20,000 cash register transactions each week. He added that the average customer makes 2.5 trips to the grocery store each week.

Steve Dale, a spokesman for U.S. Bank, said construction of a grocery store branch is about one-fourth the cost of establishing a traditional free-standing branch. Those free-standing U.S. Bank branches typically cost more than $1 million to build, he said.

The new Vons branches in Las Vegas will replace the Safeway Select Bank branches that closed last year, said Greg TenEyck, a Safeway spokesman.

He said the effort to provide customer convenience is as important to the grocery store as it is to the bank.

"It provides customers one more reason to shop at Safeway or Vons," TenEyck said.

With the new branches, U.S. Bank will have 14 traditional bank branches and 16 in-store branches in the Las Vegas area, Hall said. U.S. Bank also expects to open two new traditional branches in early 2004, he said.

"We want to grow our market share," Hall said.

U.S. Bank is the fourth largest bank in Clark County, based on deposits, behind Nevada State Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, according to the most recent market share report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Of the five remaining area Vons stores, two do not have bank branches, two have Bank of America branches and one has a Wells Fargo Bank branch. TenEyck said the deal with U.S. Bank is not exclusive and there are no plans to change the Wells Fargo or Bank of America branches.